Starz Ohana

What a fantastic day today turned out to be. Vince, the director of our department, had a going away party for us. Being that it is New Years week not a lot of people are at work but, about 30 people were there, cookies and coffee laid out and Suzanne started the party with a speech she made:

To the priests, experts in a field - kahunas
and beloved friends - hoalohas

Congratulations - Ho'omaika'i 'Ana
Congratulations on your new house - Ho'omaika'i 'Ana Ma Kou Hale Hou

A gift for you - He makana an

Farewell to you - Aloha 'ow

Good Luck - Pomaika'i

Thank you - Mahalo

15 - 'Umi kumalima

years - konohi

Happy New Year - Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

With love -  Me Ke Aloha

Your family at Starz - ko ohana Starz

She read it really funny, which was great because I got to laugh really hard and release a lot of the anxiety I was feeling, being the center of attention and all. The gift was a $330.00 gift certificate to Outfitters Kauai, for our choice of adventure. So for $356.00, we are going to do the full day adventure Kipu Zipline Safari consisting of kayaking 2 miles on the Hule 'ia River, hiking private foot paths in a lush rainforest valley and through hand carved 100 year old tunnels, a ride on a one of a kind farm wagon with spectacular views of Kipu Ranch made famous in films like Jurassic Park, enjoy a picnic lunch, an 800' zip line though a forest canopy, go on a tandem 1800' zipline, cool off at the beautiful, secluded wet and wild Blue Pool, try the t- bar water zipline and splash into the water, and finally hike back thought the rainforest, kick back and relax as a Hawaiian style canoe motors us back. Wow, what a gift! Our hearts are filled with joy from the love, support and encouragement our friends - ohana - are leaving us with. Suzanne and Elizabeth put a lot of time and effort to pull it off. Elizabeth is out of town so I went to thank Suzanne, her kindness overflowing as we talked of our plans. Later, I went into thank Vince. He may have a job lead for us, he knows some guys who work with National Geographic, they're out of Boulder but do a lot of work in Hawaii. As he was walking away he says "you guys are gonna be fine, you're gonna be better than fine". I think he's right!

Thank you for the gift:
Suzanne Heintz
Elizabeth Daly
Vince Hostack
Lisa Charchenko
Chris Paul
Jessica Creasey
Scott Waknin
Ted Intorcio
Brian Sternkopf
Vern Hunt
Debbie Taylor
Sean Richardson
Jen Houlihan
Dale Peak
Rich Tramazzo
Shannon Hall
Cynthia Wickencamp
Linda Holloway
Wes Bane
John Freeman
Mark Sweeney
Eric Benner
Jonathan Hall
Kris Brothers
Che Che Mata
Kandy Berry
Mark Dissette
Tiffany Habberkorn
Brian Kintz
Shane Aranda
Lisa Jascott
Tamara Smith Roldan
Stacy Libbrecht
Dave Cary
Penny Theobold
and 3 signatures I couldn't read